Northmont Sunchaser Scandal - The Untold Story

The Plot Summary:

Thousands of people are stressed, duressed and disheartened as they are being charged over $20,000 per annual lease (1 week per year of use) with some who have said their bills are almost $100,000. This payment is all about losing their family investment. They are being charged collectively and punitively by a timeshare company adding up to over $50,000,000 dollars, with a settlement, including a gag order and an agreement not to sue. If they don't comply within around a month's time they are threatened they will be pursued for another 162% of that amount.

Flash back in time 5 years when this company demanded people pay around $4,000 per annual lease to pay for a $40,000,000 million renovation for the entire timeshare, or alternatively to pay them a bit less to relinquish their unit. By unilaterally changing contracts, enabling this company to remove units and subsequently whole buildings from the resort, rezoning them and ultimately selling them for personal profit. These people looked for legal clarification on whether the company could charge this contending they own the right to use the property for a pre-paid slice of time, but not the property itself (as well as other arguments). All this by a company whose CEO hatched a plan in 2012 to get money to pay back investors that lost their initial investment money back when the resort(s) went into receivership. They have since been paying some investors millions of dollars – all while telling the courts without this fee the resort may not survive.

It sounds like the twisted plot from some book or made for TV movie. Or something that would happen in some third world country that doesn’t have consumer protection laws. But what if this was happening right here in Canada to thousands of Canadians right now?

Let's walk through this complicated, involved and twisted tale. One which has been a living nightmare for thousands of Canadians. And, unfortunately, not one with a happy ending.

If you are with a certain parties looking to keep this quiet, for the record this is all just an opinion. After all, it is a story, right?

Casualty (1)

Casualty (1)

We have fond memories as a family using our timeshare in Fairmont at the Fairmont Vacation Villas now known as the Sunchaser Vacation Villas . We purchased a biannual timeshare after my brother in law told us how much he liked his. When we returned to use it we were invited to a presentation. The presentation was about the whole resort changing over to RCI rather than weeks with Interval International. The salesman picked us up and drove us to the sales office and for a tour of the RV and the houseboats in the parking lot by Hillside. We were so excited and intrigued with the houseboat. The presentation was about how a new points system would allow you to exchange into many different places and options depending on the amount of points you wanted to use. We were told how new the buildings were and how they’d last for 100 years. We were told there was a lot of money being invested in the area. The Hot Springs across the highway was to redo their whole resort and the hot springs. There was even an amusement park going in across the highway. He said it was such a good investment and there was a huge reserve fund and so much money invested in the resort it would never go bankrupt. We could even will it to our children. We decided to purchase an annual one and at the same price as our biannual so we would have plenty of points to travel.

We loved the drive. The windy roads, the trees, the wildlife. The excitement set in when we arrived in Radium and had to stop at the candy store. Pulling up to the front office for check in was nice. We’d watch the people play tennis. The fresh air and openness with the beauty of the mountains. The flower baskets were always so pretty and the painted rocks at the front door with the cats on them so nice. The kids would pick out movies to rent and then get a treat at the store. We’d have a quick game of shuffleboard. We really enjoyed staying at Hillside as it was so close for the kids to go to the waterpark. We had a lot of fun there. We did many activities as a family. We all made tie dyed tshirts. We rode a rickety bus to do archery by the hoodoos. Oh how the mosquitoes loved us. We hiked to the top of the hoodoos and to have brunch at the Hot Springs Resort. Hitting a bucket of balls before dinner or having dinner at the golf course after a fun filled family day of golf at Coys. Or having a bowl of dill pickle soup at the Hoodoo Grill was always a treat as was the ice crème bar. Our family really enjoyed going to Fairmont Sunchasers Vacation Villas.